Bingley was getting tired of his sister’s insistence on only seeing things how she wanted them to be and was determined to make Caroline face reality. ‘You are correct… in theory.’ Caroline’s face lit up. ‘Pemberley is large enough and rich enough.’ He paused to drive home his point. ‘But that is due to Darcy’s careful management… a responsibility which he will never abdicate, especially since he likes living in the country and abhors being in town.’
‘Surely he will want to please his wife.’
‘I suspect he will, but you will never be that wife since I imagine that he will choose a wife who enjoys living in the country.’
‘But –‘
‘No, Caroline. Think about it. You have known Darcy for five years and in all that time he has not shown the slightest inclination towards you, no matter how much you cling to him every time you see him.’
Bingley shook his head. ‘He is also extremely conscious of his family’s expectations. You seem to ignore the fact that he has the pick of the ladies of all but the very highest circles. Do you truly believe that he would marry the daughter of a tradesman?’
‘But you are his friend…’
‘True… but he and I do not wish to marry,’ Bingley replied with a straight face.
The comment was rewarded with a snort followed by coughing as Hurst was caught mid-swallow. When he had recovered, he gave Bingley a disgusted look. ‘You could have warned me,’ he protested.
‘My apologies, Hurst,’ Bingley said while suppressing a grin. It would not do to take away from the seriousness of the current discussion. ‘What I was trying to say, Darcy is my friend, but he only tolerates you. If it were not for the fact that you are my sister, he would avoid you like the plague.’
Caroline drew her brows together and pursed her lips while taking a deep breath. When she had her temper under marginal control she said, ‘Charles, you are only arguing with me to vex me. You will see that when Mr Darcy joins us, he will see what an excellent hostess I am and will wish to make me the mistress of Pemberley.’
Miss Bingley was fortunate that she was too focused on her argument with her brother and did not hear Hurst mutter, ‘The best you can hope for is to be his mistressatPemberley… perhaps in one of his cottages, and that only if he goes deaf or you become mute. He would never be fool enough to marry you and make you the mistress of his home.’
As Caroline was miffed and Hurst was more interested in his dinner, conversation continued in a desultory fashions between Mrs Hurst and Bingley who hoped that Caroline would see the light. He hated confrontations.
~T~
Two days later, Bingley returned the call on Mr Bennet, who was tempted to keep the young man in suspense by preventing him from meeting the ladies of the house but had not counted on his wife’s determination.
Mrs Bennet had gone into the garden on the pretext to cut a few flowers for the dinner table and returned into the house at Mrs Hill’s signal toaccidentallyencounter Mr Bingley in the foyer. Being a good hostess, she of course had to offer refreshments to the gentleman, who accepted with alacrity when the lady mentioned her daughters.
Mr Bingley was delighted when Mrs Bennet introduced her daughters and was immediately smitten with Jane’s beauty. ‘I had heard that Longbourn was the home of the jewels of the county, but I mustdeclare that they were wrong. Surely you must be the jewel of the entire country,’ he asserted.
He was civil enough to the other ladies present but struggled to focus on anyone other than Jane.
Lydia and Kitty put their heads together as they giggled behind their hands, highly amused by their observations.
While Elizabeth and Mary tried to give them quelling looks, they were hampered by their own amusement at Mr Bingley’s reaction.
As soon as Bingley finished drinking his tea, Jane not so subtly suggested, ‘I am sure that you must have many other calls to make. As much as I enjoyed your visit, I cannot in good conscience deprive our neighbours of an equal pleasure.’
Bingley started at the comment. ‘Good heavens, I had not realised that I had been here as long as all that. You must be an enchantress to make time disappear in the blink of an eye.’ Although he hated to part from his latest angel, good manners asserted themselves and he took his leave while promising that his sisters would extend an invitation to the ladies.
~T~
4Impressions
As soon as Bingley had departed Longbourn and there was no chance of him overhearing the ladies, the younger girls all started to tease Jane.
‘Oh, Miss Bennet, you are a veritable angel descended from heaven,’ Mary declared with her most pious expression.
‘Oh, Miss Bennet, I have never seen a lady to equal you in beauty,’ gushed Elizabeth, while holding her clasped hands to her chin and looking towards the ceiling. A moment later she dropped her hands and eyes and asked with an impish grin, ‘I wonder how many ladies he has met who exceed you in beauty?’
Jane burst into long suppressed laughter. ‘I suspect he has met many such ladies, but his memory is perhaps selective.’
Before Kitty and Lydia had a chance to contribute to the hilarity, Mrs Bennet chided them. ‘Girls, you are being unkind to a perfectly kind gentleman. I thought that he was everything charming and handsome.’
‘Mama, I agree, he is all of that, but I also confess that papa may have the right of it as well. He seemed quite young and ah…’ Jane trailed off, reluctant to say anything negative about their visitor.
